Total lock building structure



Dec..1, 1970 R. s. GREGOIRE 3,543,456

TOTAL LOCK BUILDING STRUCTURE Filed June 11, 1968 7 Sheets-Sheet 1 1970 R. s. GREGOIRE 3,54

TOTAL LOCK BUILDING STRUCTURE Filed June 11. 1968 7 Sheets-Sheet 2 Dec. 1, 1970 R. s. GREGOIRE 3,543,456

TOTAL LOCK BUiLDING STRUCTURE Filed June 11. 1968 7 Sheets-Sheet 5 Dec. 1, 1970 R. s. GREGOIRE I TOTAL LOCK BUILDING STRUCTURE 7 Sheets-Sheet 4 III Dec. 1, 1970 R. s. GREGOIRE 3,543,456

TOTAL LOCK BUILDING STRUCTURE Filed June 11, 1968 7 Sheets-Sheet 5 84 98 v as Dec. 1, 1970 R. s. GREGOIRE 3,543,456

TOTAL LOCK BUILDING STRUCTURE Filed June 11 1968 7 Sheets-Sheet 6 Dc. 1 1970 w GREGOlRE $543,456

TOTAL LOCK BUILDING STRUCTURE Filed June 11 1968 7 Sheets-Sheet 7 F a HO 12 26 65 so as J 4 98 80 a 98 98 w I00 302. 98 \KDZ US. Cl. 5292 3 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE This novel building structure is such that its base frame forms a continuous interlock edge with the lower ends of the wall panels which have the side edges of each pair of adjacent panels adapted to form an interlocking joint extending the full length of the panels, the upper ends of the wall panels being interlocked with the cave ends of the roof panels which have the side edges of each adjacent pair of panels similarly interlocked, and extend across the width of the structure, the side edges of the roof panels at the ends of the structure being interlocked with complementary interlock edges provided at the top of the end wall panels; and for the larger roof spans one or more trusses may be interlocked with the roof panels to provide support therefor between the side walls at spaced intervals between the end walls. For gable roof structures, a gable ridge beam may further be provided and its ends interlockingly mounted in the tops of the roof end wall panels, with a ridge cap member locked over the top of the beam and providing axial grooves on each side of the ridge for interlocking with the upper ends of the roof panels on the corresponding sides of the roof.

It has been customary to make building structures by fastening the various parts of the base frame, walls and roof together by means of nails, screws, bolts, etc., at the site of the structure, using skilled workmen, and to build masonry or brick walls by experienced artisans, using cement or mortar for fastening the bricks, blocks and/or stones together. Various tools and instruments had to be resorted to and much skilled manpower spent in order to erect a true and strong structure; and the various fastening means which usually weakened the materials by perforating the parts to be held together, were detrimental to the strength and durability of the resulting structure.

The present structure is easily put up by unskilled hands, without any tools, instruments or penetrating fastenings of any kind to weaken the parts, and the structure may just as easily be taken apart, whenever desired.

Some of the interlock joints that are illustrated resemble the subject matter of prior patents of the present inventor, such as Pat. No. 3,241,284 for Panel and Joint and Pat. No. 3,376,679 for Sheet Panel Wall Assembly. A lighter form of wall panels, including wooden and/or plastic components are here disclosed.

The object of this invention is to provide fabricated parts of high strength and durability and light weight, with interlock means that may be easily assembled to form substantially sealed and strong joints along their full length, whereby the entire building structure may be erected on the site substantially as fast as the parts can be unloaded from the delivery vehicle; and can be just as readily taken down for removal to a new location, without the use of any tools or equipment other than possibly some handling apparatus such as cranes or other lifting and moving equipment for assistance in handling the parts which might be too heavy for manual handling alone.

A further object is to construct panels of the above nited States Patent Patented Dec. 1, 1970 type having optimum strength and durability as well as inherent decorative characteristics.

A further object is to construct a beam having the above characteristics and adapted for use as a gable ridge beam for the present type of building structure.

A further object is to make the peripheral base frame of wooden beams having portion-s extending inwardly to provide an internal ledge on which the floor may be mounted.

Another object is to make the peripheral base frame of metal provided with means for fixing it to the ground and adapted to form a frame for pouring concrete for a floor therewithin.

A further object is to incorporate a door or a window in some panels for proper placement in the building structure in accordance with any desired design plans.

A further object is to provide each panel with an insulation lining with or without a finishing sheet fixed to the inner face thereof, and having complementary side edges to provide a continuous finished inside wall in the building structure.

Other and more specific objects will become apparent in the following detailed description of the specific forms of the panels and interlocks as well as other parts of this building structure as illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is an outside perspective view of a building structure made in accordance with the present invention, with a gable roof of low pitch and having external trusses,

FIGS. 2 and 3 are similar views of alternate types of roofs, viz., a horizontal roof and a low single-pitched roof respectively,

FIG. 4 is an enlarged detail sectional view in per-spective and broken to foreshorten its height, through a wall and its eave portion, taken substantially along the line 44 of FIG. 1,

FIG. 5 is a similar view of the gable portion of the roof, taken substantially along the line 55 of FIG. 1,

FIG. 6 is a similar view of the lower portion of the wall, showing a metal base frame,

FIG. 7 is an enlarged detail perspective view of a gable roof end panel,

FIG. 8 is a sectional perspective view through a portion of a roof end wall and roof, of the type shown in FIG. 1,

FIG. 9 is a vertical sectional view of the cave portion of a flat or horizontal roof,

FIG. 10 is a similar view of the cave portion of a gable roof with internal trusses extending between the tops of the side walls,

FIG. 11 is an exploded view in perspective, of the parts of this type of truss,

FIG. 12 is a perspective view of a space take-up member for the upper ends of the roof panels in the axial grooves of the gable ridge cover member, so as to lock these panels in place,

FIG. 13 is a perspective view of the ridge cover strip for straddling the upper ends of the external roof trusses,

FIG. 14 is an exploded view of the parts of the panel structure,

FIG. 15 is a sectional view in perspective of a panel having an outwardly opening door incorporated therein,

FIG. 16 is a similar view showing an inwardly opening door incorporated in it,

FIGS. 17 and 18 sectional detail views in perspective through one of the joints between coplanar or in-line panels, and corner panels respectively,

FIG. 19 is a sectional view in perspective of an external truss mounted on a lock strip over one of the dovetail ridges forming a joint between in-line panels,

FIG. 20 is a similar view showing a modified form of the mounting means,

FIGS. 21 and 22 are similar to FIGS. 17 and 18, showing a modified form of insulation filler strips at the corresponding joints,

FIGS. 23 and 24 are similar views to those in FIGS. 19 and 20, showing this modified form of insulation filler strips at the joints, and

FIG. 25 is a detail view in perspective of the mounting of the ridge beam in a roof end panel portion at one end thereof.

It will be understood that the specific forms of panel and joint construction and of the peripheral interlocks disclosed herein are merely illustrative of how this total lock building structure may be made, because there are many other obvious modifications that may be made in the several parts of the structure Without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention, which has many advantages over the structures of the prior art, some of which may be enumerated as follows:

(1) Versatility of application: utility buildings, garages, farm buildings of every kind, commercial, industrial, second home structures, motels, schools, house trailers, etc. ad infinitum.

(2) Novel features: all total lock buildings can be erected from the foundation up without tools; no fastening devices are used that penetrate the exterior walls or roof of the structure, so that the building materials are not weakened by penetrations and will remain weathertight for the life of the materials; the joints are locked throughout their entire length making them stronger than any oher fastenings made by bolts, nails, screws, clips, rivets etc.; they are in efiect permanent structures, yet they can be readily assembled at one location, used, then taken down, moved to another location and reassembled, as many times as desired, all without tools; they can be erected faster and with less labor than any others known today, exclusive of an inflated balloon structure; in many cases, the structures can be erected faster than the components can be unloaded from a truck at the job site; panels having doors or windows incorporated therein may be installed in any selected locations around the periphery of any structure as may be desired; all walls are total periphery load bearing walls, considerably reducing if not totally eliminating the requirements for separate structure supporting members; walls may be insulated or not, and may have internal finish or not without imparing the ease of assembly or disassembly; Weight to strength ratio is less than any other buildings or materials, so that transportation and handling costs are reduced; there are no sharp edges exposed on the exterior or interior walls; attractiveness and versatility in design; economical, etc.

FIG. 1 illustrates a typical building having a low double-pitched or gable roof with external trusses 10. The end wall showing in this figure, is made up of two panels 12 joined together by a lock strip 14 and being locked into the peripheral base frame 16' at their lower end and having peripherally extending lock means at their upper end fixed to the bottom of the roof end panel 18. The side wall in view is made up of a window panel 20, a panel 12 and a door panel 22 with lock strips 14 at the joints on each side of the panel 12, and lock strips 24 at the corner joints. The lower ends of the side wall panels are interlocked with the peripheral base 16, and the upper ends thereof are interlocked with the eave ends of the roof panels 26 which are identical in cross section to panels 12.

Three roof panels 26 are interlocked together by lock strips 28 to form each side of the double-pitched or gable roof, and the outer edges of the end panels 26 of each side of this roof are joined to similar edgestrips 30 formed on the inner sides of the roof end panels 18 by additional lock strips 14, which may be seen in FIG. 8.

Thus, an entire building structure of any desired design may be provided in a package, containing the necessary 4 parts and delivered to the site, where, if the package of parts is loaded in the delivery truck in reverse order, the parts may be erected in the proper order as they are unloaded.

In the design shown in FIG. 1, this would permit the base frame members to be unloaded first and placed upon the ground in proper position to form the peripheral base frame 16. Next, the two panels 12 would be erected by slipping the ridges 32 of their angle strips which are fixed at the inside of their lower ends, into the peripheral grooves 34 of the base frame 16, their lower edges 36 resting on the peripheral ledge 38 of the base frame 16. A lock strip is then slid over the half dove tail ridges of the abutting side edges of the panels 12.

Panels 20, 12 and 22 are then successively installed and locked in place by sliding the corner lock strip 24 and the two in-line lock strips 14, 14 in succession over the respective panel joints. The erection of the panels is then continued in a similar manner successively around the other sides of the building, and finished by sliding the corner lock strip 24 over the adjacent edges of the first and last panels.

Now the peripheral lock strips 55 may be snapped over the top edges of all the wall panels to provide the peripheral ridges 40 and ledges 42 for receiving the grooves 44 and ledges 46 at the eave ends of the roof panels 26 and the grooves 60 and ledges 58 at the lower edges of the roof end panels 18 as these panels are mounted and locked in place.

The peripheral lock strips are generally of rectangular channel form hung over the top edges of the wall panels, the inner side of which has an angle strip fixed thereto to provide a ridge 48 over which the inwardly turned edge 50 of the channel wall of the peripheral lock strips is snapped to hold these strips against removal unless this channel side is sprung outwardly over the ridge 48 to enable the strip to be raised ofi the wall panels, as in dissembly. The outer side of the channel is extended in reverse direction up to and over the bottom of the channel form at an angle corresponding to the pitch of the gable roof in this case to form a ridge 40. In the case of a flat or horizontal roof structure as seen in FIG. 9, this ridge 54 extends horizontally to form the ledge 56.

The gable end wall panels 18 may then be erected by sliding the inclined flanged ledges 58 at their lower edges down the ledge of the ridge 40 of the corresponding peripheral lock strips at the ends of the building, until the groove 60 at the inner edge of the flanges 58 hooks over the inner edge of the ridge 40. The ridge beam 62 is then mounted in place with its ends properly set on shelves 63 which are fixed to the inner faces of the gable end wall panels 18. The ridge cap member 64 has previously been snapped over the ridge beam 62 to provide deep rectangular channel grooves 66 extending axially on each side of the ridge beam to slidably receive the upper ends of the roof panels 26.

The roof panels 26 may then be slipped individually into these cap strip grooves, and the Z-bars 68 at their eave ends hooked over the inclined ridges 40; they may then he slid laterally and the side edges joined to the side edges of adjacent roof panels and to the edge strips 30 by means of lock strips 28. Key spacer strips 70 may be used in the spaces in the bottom of the channel grooves 66 to keep the Z-bars at the eave ends of the roof panels locked over the ridges 40. The lock strips 28 are made integral with a channel clip portion, backed up by the back of the lock strip. A truss 10 is mounted in this clip portion to strengthen the panels for long spans and high snow loads and the like.

A cover ridge strip 72 may be provided over the space between the upper ends of opposed trusses 10 to finish the appearance of the central ridge breaks between these trusses. The ends of this cover ridge strip may be slipped under the upper flanges of the roof end wall panels at the peak of the gable to hold the ridge strip in place.

For this purpose and for inserting the last of the roof panels in place, it is necessary to move the adjacent roof end wall panel outwardly while temporarily supporting this end of the beam 62, in order to allow the insertion of the last of the key spacer strips 70' in its locking place, and then returning the roof end wall panel and installing the last of the lock strips 28, joining these roof panels to the edge strips 30 on the inside of the roof end wall panel.

The basic panel illustrated comprises the rectangular board 80 provided with integral or fixed external dove tail ridges 82 extending axially thereof and spaced between half dove tail ridges 84 at the side edges of the board, said half ridges having complementary tongue and groove edges 86 and 88 for interlocking said half ridges when the side edges of adjacent panels are in abutting relation, to enable the sliding of the dove tail lock strip 14 over the interlocked half ridges to form a strong joint substantially sealed the full length of the panels.

For corner joints, a square filler strip 90 and a corner lock strip 92 are used, the filler strip having tongue and groove sides 94 and 96 for interlocking with the edges 88 and 86 respectively of the adjacent half ridges 84.

The panels may also have an insulation sheet 98 fixed to the inner face of the board 80 or sandwiched between it and an inner sheet of finish material 100, in which event the side edges of the insulation sheet 98 may be offset inwardly or recessed, and a tongue strip 102 with squared edges used in this space across the joint to further seal the joint and facilitate the alignment of the finished surfaces of adjacent panels. The tongue strip 104 may further having bevelled side edges to conform to bevelled offsets of the insulation sheet 98 and may have bevelled finish portion 106 to fill in a gap between cut-back and bevelled side edges of the finish material of the adjacent panels so as to provide a wedging of the sheets into a better seal and alignment of the finish surfaces, and the same panel forms could be used at the corner joints with no gap between the finished sheets of the adjacent panels and a wedged tongue strip 108 in the space between the bevelled offsets of the insulation sheets.

Thus, the building with insulation and finished material sheets on the inside, could be assembled and dissembled just as readily as one with just the plain board panels. In all cases, however, the beauty of the outside vertically striped appearance would be retained, as well as its adaptability for innumerable changes in appearance by variously designed insert strips of decorative material which may be instantly applied between the vertical dove tail ridges.

The external trusses are mounted firmly in channel clips 110 formed integrally on the backs of the lock strips 28 or in similar clips 112 mounted as by spot welding on the lock strips 28. The trusses may extend the full length of the rook panels 114 as in FIGS. 2 and 3, or for any lesser portion thereof, as e.g. the trusses 10 which stop short of the gable ends of the panels to permit said ends to be slipped into the channel grooves 66 during installation.

The lock strips with channel clips 110 may be extruded, as shown in FIGS. 19 and 23, or of channel formed sheet material, spot welded back to back, as shown in FIGS. 20 and 24.

In FIG. 6 is shown an extruded form of base frame 6 Where internal trusses are desired, they may be formed of a beam portion 126 having saddle plates 128 fixed as by screws 130' to the ends of the beam, for mounting over the channel portion of the peripheral lock strip mounted over the top of the wall panels. These internal trusses may be desired for the Wider roof spans, and may be used as additional supports of the ridge beam 62 at intermediate points between its ends.

What is claimed is:

1. A total lock building structure, comprising a base frame fixed to the ground and having continuous peripherally extending interlock grooves and ledges therein,

a plurality of wall panels having complementary ridges and edges at their lower ends interlocked with said base frame grooves and ledges,

each pair of adjacent wall panels having lock strips holding their side edges interlocked to form a sealed joint extending the full length thereof,

the upper ends of said panels being capped with lock strips having peripherally extending ridges and ledges,

roof panels similarly joined by lock strips at the side edges of each pair of adjacent panels and having their outer ends provided with complementary grooves and ledges interlocked with the peripheral ridges and ledges of the lock strips at the upper ends of said wall panels,

said roof panels extending from the Wall panels on each side of said structure upwardly to a ridge to form a double-pitched gable roof, and

roof end wall panels having similar complementary grooves and ledges at their bottoms interlocked with peripherally extending ridges and ledges of said lock strips at the tops of the end wall panels and half dove tail strips on their inner faces joined by lock strips to the outer sides of the end panels of said double-pitched roof.

2. A building structure as defined in claim 1, and

a gable ridge beam interlocked at each end with the ridge portion of the corresponding roof end wall panel, and

a ridge cap member locked over the top of said gable ridge beam and having axially extending grooves along the opposite sides of said beam,

the upper ends of said roof panels being locked in said cap member grooves.

3. A building structure as defined in claim 2,

said gable ridge beam being hollow and having a substantially hour-glass configuration in cross section, providing a strong and light weight construction.

FOREIGN PATENTS 1/ 1952 Great Britain. 7/1955 Italy.

ALFRED C. PERHAM, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 

